$10K bail for man who allegedly assaulted pregnant girlfriend

The Superior Court imposed a $10,000 cash bail on a man accused of choking and “body slamming” his pregnant girlfriend because she got into a physical altercation with her sister who is also believed to be the man’s lover.

Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth Govendo imposed a $10,000 cash bail on Albert Esefou, a man charged with assault and battery domestic violence, and disturbing the peace after he allegedly seized his pregnant girlfriend up by the neck and slammed her to ground.

Court documents state that he physically assaulted his girlfriend of 10 years because she threw a rock at her sister’s car and pulled her hair after allegedly finding out that the two were having an affair.

Following his bail hearing, Govendo remanded Esefou back to Department of Corrections custody and ordered him to return to court on Feb. 3, at 1:30pm for a preliminary hearing. His arraignment was also set for Feb. 7 at 9am before Superior Court Presiding Judge Roberto Naraja.

According to court documents, at around 8:23am on Jan. 22, Department of Public Safety dispatched units to As Lito in response to a disturbance-in-progress call.

At the scene, police saw a man, later identified as Esefou, walking away from the female victim.

The woman, who was pregnant, was observed to have had an injury along the right portion of her face and was crying and shouting as she claims she felt numb and had a difficult time catching her breath. She managed to tell police that her boyfriend of 10 years had beaten her up.

In a statement to police, she explained that when Esefou arrived at their home in As Lito earlier that day, they started talking about their relationship when he told her he was going to leave.

As Esefou was leaving the house, the victim said she followed him and saw a blue Toyota Prius parked at the neighbor’s house. Inside the car was her sister. The victim said she shouted at her sister to open the doors but it was locked, which prompted her to throw a rock at the Prius, damaging the windshield.

Esefou allegedly tried to push the victim away from the Prius but when she wouldn’t budge, he allegedly choked her neck, scratched her along the right portion of her face, and threw her down on the gravel road.

The victim said she was on the ground already and Esefou continued to kick her backside before reaching down to pull her hair and tried to punch her in the face.

In a follow up interview, the victim explained that she had suspected that Esefou and her sister were having an affair.